1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, a program and a recording medium. More particularly, it relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, a program and a recording medium, suitable for handling a book in an electronic form (electronic book).
2. Description of Related Art
Such electronic book, formed by text data, is coming into widespread use. With the electronic book, the information generally recorded by primers (printed words) in a paper book is displayed as the text data information by a preset terminal device for the electronic book, as if the page of the paper book is in a spread state. The electronic book is displayed as in a paper book, spread and folded page by page, by the one-page text (image) being slid and displayed by acting on a preset button.
With the conventional terminal device for the electronic book, it has been proposed (e.g. in Patent Publication 1), for easy-to-read display, to partition the text data for a book in accordance with preset conditions stated in a file pertinent to partitioning, within a scope of the maximum number of letters/characters displayable at a time on a display, and to display each partitioning unit of the text data sequentially on a display unit (see for example the Patent publication 1).
Such a method has also been proposed which enables a conventional terminal apparatus for an electronic book or data handled by the terminal apparatus to be produced extremely readily (see for example the Patent publication 2).    [Patent publication 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2002-197088    [Patent publication 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 2001-52016
The terminal device for an electronic book is designed to a size portable by a user. Hence, a limitation has been imposed on the size of the display of the terminal device which is designed for demonstrating the text data. This size is not necessarily optimum for users. For example, even though the same letter/character is displayed to the same size in the same area, some users may find the letter/character easy to read, while others may not.
Thus, the technique disclosed in the aforementioned Patent Publication 1 has been proposed in order to make text data to be easy to read in a limited display area. However, in the Patent Publication 1, in which the text data for a book is partitioned in accordance with preset conditions as stated in the file pertinent to partitioning, within a scope of the maximum number of letters/characters displayable at a time on a display, and to sequentially display each partitioning unit of the text data on a display unit, the size of the letter/character is not necessarily optimum.
For example, a user with good eyesight may find the text easy-to-read with the given size of the letter/character, while another user with poor eyesight may find the text easy-to-read with the size of the letter/character larger than the given size. That is, a problem persists that it is not possible to form the display to the size of the letter/character desirable for the user.
On the other hand, the display with the maximum number of letters/characters displayable on the display unit may be acceptable for text data of e.g. a novel, made up solely by an array of letters/characters, while it may not be acceptable for data also including still images and which is featured by the layout of the entire contents, as a newspaper or a magazine, or data made up solely by an array of letters/characters but which is featured by the layout itself, such as a script in which paragraph change is desirably made from one spoken speech to another.
The same may be said of the Patent Publication 2. The data structure, disclosed in the Patent Publication 2, may be acceptable for e.g. an image, however, it is not so with the text, because the layout may be changed, or the size cannot be enlarged or contracted in a manner desirable for the user.
That is, if the layout itself of the still images and the text is also supplied to the user, the contents may be rendered more pleasant for the user, while it is possible to make much of the intention of the author of the contents. However, this desirable condition has not been met with the method disclosed in the aforementioned Patent Publication 1 or 2.